Natural Consequences (14 page)

She turned to a fresh page in her notebook and wrote in big letters, holding it up to him when she was finished so he could read. “Notes in class? Really? Don’t you have text messaging?”

Jason gave his best rapper’s shrug, patted his chest, and flashed her two letters in sign language: “O.G.”

Amber couldn’t bite down on her laugh fast enough to avoid an annoyed glance from Mr. Grad Student.

*   *   *

“Boom!” Amber shouted gleefully. Jason’s wrestler went over the ropes and
onto the concrete. “Suck it, n00b!”

“This is bullshit!” Jason moaned, twiddling his controllers while his opponent bounced around happily next to him on the
futon. “Aw, you’re gonna blow my streak! I—holy shit, how’d you program your girl to do crotch-chops? Is that even in the options menu?”

Amber’s triumphant laugh continued. She brought her custom female wrestler out of the ring and put Jason’s avatar through another health-bar-punishing piledriver. She quickly went for the pin. “Falls count anywhere, biatch,” she cackled.

“Aw, man, that’s it,” he sighed. “I’m down. Crap.”

“What? Hey, don’t give up, fight out of it!”

“Why?” he asked, but worked the controller anyway at her behest. “I’m not gonna recover in—see? You got the pin.”

“It’s sweeter if you keep struggling,” she grinned.

“You put in cheat codes while I was in the bathroom, didn’t you?”

“Just the one for the crotch-chops,” Amber confessed. “We can start over and I’ll trash you again on a fresh character if you don’t believe me.”

“No, no, I believe you. Wow. That was ugly.” He noticed right away that Amber’s bouncing had brought her shoulder to shoulder with him. The closeness felt good. Her head turned to look at him, revealing her triumphant grin and her glittering eyes. That felt even better.

His mind went into warp speed.

Is this a good first kiss moment? Pro wrestling on a console? Really? It’d be funny at least. Maybe sweet. We’re bonding regardless. She’s so close. She’s looking at me. Wait, she’s slowing down here, like she’s wondering if I’m gonna go for it, should I? Oh God I don’t know, I want to but our shoulders are both in the way and if she I go for it and she turns away I’m gonna—no. She turned. Okay. Well. Damn.

He didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved that he didn’t try it before the moment was gone. He opted for the latter.
Nothing romantic about pro wrestling video games anyway.

Amber took a deep breath, managing to keep her smile up as she put her initials into the game’s record of champions.
Thought he was gonna go for it
. She did not allow herself to consider whether she actually wanted him to or not.

“Okay, how often do you play this at home?” he asked.

“Often enough, but usually just against the computer. It’s not like I’ve had a lot of live opponents lately.”

“I have a hard time believing you can’t find people to play with.”

“Well, not people I really like, anyway,” she huffed, “and that’s the problem with finding real live friends, right? You can’t just turn them off. They have drama or needs or low social skills. Or they won’t go home when you want them to, so you can’t bring them to your place. Or they don’t pick up after themselves or clean their bathrooms, so you don’t want to go over there.” Amber shook her head. “People are complicated.”

“I’m sorry, I have a hard time believing it’s tough for you to find friends,” Jason pressed, nudging her with his shoulder. “You’re too awesome.”

Her smile faded a bit, though not because the sentiment displeased her. “You’d be surprised,” she said. “Besides, even if it’s not a problem with me, often enough it’s a problem with them. And then I wonder if I’m just being a bitch, or if no, I really shouldn’t put up with them… it’s tough to find people I like who like me.” She gave a little shrug. “I like you.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. Now he really is gonna kiss me.

Damn. That’s a signal, bro. You gotta go for that. Don’t be a pussy.
“I like you, too,” Jason said, ignoring the childish voice in his head. It might have been dead-on, but he saw the slight, sudden flinch in her eyes. “You’re about the coolest woman I’ve ever met.”

Amber blushed. She fought her smile, holding it down to just a smirk, and opted to back out of the danger zone. “We both know that’s not true.”

“Oh, you think I’m just throwing out random flattery?”

“What about your friend, Lorelei?”

Her bid to reduce the tension worked; Jason rolled his eyes, turning toward her but scooting back on the futon to lean against the armrest. Amber did the same, cutting the volume off on the console.

“That’s a special case, there,” Jason said. “I mean I don’t want to sound like I’m into making crass comparisons or anything.”

“It’s okay,” Amber assured him. “Believe me, I get that she’s not just a random college gal or anything. She’s not even in college at all, anymore, is she?”

“No. Nah, she’s just slummin’ it with us. Hell, I don’t even know if she ever went to a college. Probably. I dunno.”

“She makes quite an impression, though.”

“Yeah, she does.
Makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room that matters when she talks to you, right?” Jason asked. “Only if you hang out with her long enough, you realize she does that with everybody. At least, everybody she puts any effort or interest into.”

“
Well, you guys all grew up with her boyfriend. It stands to reason she’d want to get along with you.”

“Sure, but she doesn’t have to come play pool with us while he’s
busy. I mean that’s how you know when someone really wants to be friends, right? They initiate hang-outs rather than making you do all the work.”

Amber smiled wistfully. “Must be nice.”

“I’d have to have your phone number or your email to do any initiating,” he suggested.

She patted
around the coat hanging off the side of the futon to find a pen. Then she scribbled the numbers and letters onto the first random receipt within reach.

Score,
Jason thought.

She offered it to him, then snatched it up out of his reach and held it high. “Do not—do
not
start playing ‘maybe I should wait two days before I call so I don’t look desperate’ bullshit with me,” she said. “I’m not into that.” He nodded. She lowered the paper, then snatched it up again as he reached. “And don’t just hang up on my voicemail.”

“Fuck, what am I, a dolphin in a waterpark?” he chuckled,
snatching the slip of paper from her hand.

“Okay, so what’s the deal with them, though?”

“Them who?”

“Them. I get that Lorelei’s like the cool older woman you guys all hang out with—and I like your friends, by the way—but I didn’t really get to meet Alex.
He was feeling crappy when he showed up, right? But what’s their story?”

Jason paused. Amber noticed.
He knows
, she thought, suddenly feeling a pit in her stomach.
He knows I’m not supposed to remember.
She kept up her comfortable, mildly curious expression.

“Uh. Hrm. I’m gonna be honest and say I’m not sure what to say here, ‘cuz Lorelei’s like, kind of private, y’know?” he fumbled.

“Lorelei said I’d have to earn this story,” Amber noted.

“
Kind of, yeah, but I should let Lorelei tell it,” Jason said, adding silently,
because she’s a way better liar than I am and Alex would probably fuck it up worse than I would.
“Like I said. Kinda private.”

“Well, she was open enough to mention their other girlfriend,” Amber grinned. “It’s none of my business, I know, but that’s still curious, isn’t it?”

“Hey, it’s not exactly unheard of,” he reminded her dryly.

“Yeah, but your thing with those girls lasted what? Two weeks? And were they into each other?”

“Mostly just for kicks, I think. Not seriously. Lorelei and Rachel are for real.”

“That’s like every guy’s dream, isn’t it?”

Jason shrugged. “Yes and no, I guess. Maybe. Depends. Plenty of drama to go with it. Don’t go judging someone’s life when all you get to see is the highlight reel, right? I forget who first said that, but there you go.”

“That’s kind of interesting,” Amber mused. She saw a curious look on Jason’s face as her thoughts trailed off. “But
you wouldn’t want that?”

“I’m sayin’ it ain’t for everyone, and you shouldn’t presume
it’s all porn and roses,” Jason said. “And no. Probably not me.”

“Not again, anyway.” She grinned widely. “
I still like Drew’s term. ‘Adventures in Britneyland.’”

Jason groaned loudly. “Okay, do not judge me on that.”

“But I can still judge other people, right?”

He conceded that one with a nod. “Maybe not the
women, but Alex is kind of a tramp, yeah. You go ahead and judge him all you want. We all do.”

“Heh. Wow. Lorelei’s
ex-boyfriends must kick themselves now, huh?”

“Oh, I
dunno,” Jason said, his eyes widening knowingly. “Can’t imagine it ever ended well from the perspective of any of her previous guys.”

* * *

“She
fucked
‘im to
death
, nig. KnowwhatI’msayin’?”

“No,” Agent
Keeley answered, “I don’t know what you’re saying. At all.”

The skinny, blond convict thumped his hands down on the black
table. “I’m sayin’ she took my homie up to his place an’ fucked ‘im ‘til the motherfucker
died
, man. Damn. Shit ain’t complicated. Just bang away on a nig ‘til he ain’t got nothin’ left in ‘im.”

“Mister Koblitz,” Keeley said, making an effort of will not to slap the pale-skinned moron across from him every time he dropped the N-bomb, “do you have any evidence of that? Any way to prove that at all?”

“Nah, man. Shit. What evidence would there be? Motherfucker probably died naked on his bed with a big fuckin’ clown-face smile, that ain’t evidence enough? Can’t someone do some CSI shit on his dick? Oh, no, probably too late for that, and nobody cares when a brother from the ‘hood dies under mysterious bullshit, right? No bullets, no crime?”

“Mr. Koblitz, did you actually see this woman during or after your fight in the parking lot?”

“No. No, man, that’s what I’m tellin’ you. We just grabbed Carlisle an’ the underwear salesgirl an’ then there was the fight an’ you’ve read about all that already. Only other bitch we ran into was the blonde that knocked me out. I still say she must’ve been holdin’ a brick or somethin’.”

“So you don’t know her name?”

“No. You don’t see it in the police reports, do you? Any of the legal papers? I read all that shit after I got here. I picked up a dictionary an’ all my papers an’ started readin’ ‘em like Malcom X an’ shit, and ain’t nowhere in ‘em does that chick’s name show up. Man, I still don’t even know what it is. Now you wanna tell me that ain’t suspicious?”

“Not if she wasn’t part of the crime or one of its victims,” Keeley shrugged. “She was not a direct witness. She saw nothing and had nothing to report.”

“But she was
there
, man!” Tony snapped, slamming his hands down on the table again. “She was still a part of this! You tell me how a half-dozen cops an’ the prosecuting attorney just ignore that shit! Like they ignored Damon getting fuck-murdered!”

“Mr. Koblitz,” Agent Hauser grumbled, “
in your altercation with Alex Carlisle, would you say he demonstrated great fighting skill? You said he was unarmed. You had him outnumbered. Neither you nor your associates are smaller than he is. Did he seem to be trained for combat?”

“No,”
Tony fumed. “He didn’t know no kung fu or boxing or any of that other bullshit. He didn’t throw a punch like a girl or nothin’, but it wasn’t like he went all Jackie Chan on us. It was just a street fight. He suckered us an’ the girl kept messin’ with me, but mostly it just turned into a mess.”

“And then the blonde showed up, and knocked you out—“

“Yeah, with a brick or somethin’—“

“—and you woke up in police custody. You never saw any of them again nor had any contact since, correct?”

“Yeah, man.”

“And the same goes for your associates?”

Tony’s frown turned sullen. “Yeah, man,” he repeated. “Far as I know.”

“Damon Curtis?” Hauser asked, writing it down. “Died this past New Years’? Thank you. We’ll look into it. Mr. Koblitz, if any of this leads to a trial, are you ready to testify that this woman was the last person seen with Curtis before his death? Okay. Mr. Koblitz, one last question: all of your observation of this woman took place during the evening, correct? You never saw her during the daytime?”

Koblitz made a face. “What, you think my eyes aren’t so good?”

“It’s important to establish a pattern of behavior is all.”